Nashville’s Seryn salvage a late show at Brick & Mortar

Vehicle mishaps are no match for the four pieces of Nashville-based eclectic folk combo Seryn. A broken-down tour van resulted in their taking the stage at around 10:15pm, sound-checking to a audience captivated by initially suspense and then each wildly-bearded member’s sweet apologies and yodeling mic tests.

Seryn’s music is characterized by the kind of three- and four-voice harmonies you’d hear in country music piped out of a pickup truck’s speakers, but set to a unique blend of folk instruments — ukuleles (both a tenor and a bass), an Ibanez, banjos, and, on this occasion, a cajón instead of a drum kit.

Lead singer Trenton Wheeler’s face expressed the passion behind his words, discussing love and apathy poignantly in “Ivory Black.” He sang: “Cold, but I’m not dead / Carrying all these fears, on wings of lead.”

Despite having to work with a limited array of instruments and so little time to set up (the band continued to adjust wedges and mouth directions to the venue sound technician mid-set), Seryn held their own with well-coordinated vocal arrangements and a tangible passion.

In all, we learned that night that Seryn’s ability to connect with a crowd, winning over even the saltiest of impatient curmudgeons that night, is not to be missed. Several late August tour dates can be found on their official Facebook.